Designing for Resiliency
Rivers are the arteries of a landscape, from babbling headwater streams to raging white water in steep mountain valleys and lazy watercourses making their way through the plains. They bring much-needed water to agricultural lands and transport the nutrients and sediments that feed downstream growth and change.
We know that rivers are always evolving, moving, and reinventing their place and role in the landscape. When humans seek to exert too much control on rivers, we lose. Watershed approaches work with and near rivers as a cooperative partner who knows their nature and seeks to preserve high value existing infrastructure while identifying where and how to set rivers free to avoid negative consequences for community assets. River corridor and stream restoration, safe transportation crossings, and control of upland discharge to active channels are just some of the tools that we use to result in hydrologically-sound solutions that respect the reality of day-to-day operations.
